Two Dreamers
by k-a-dg
Summary: Tumblr roleplaying thread written in 2013. Paragraphs by Alice written by Tumblr user wonderlanddaydreaming. The characters of Alice & Ariel are completely owned by the Walt Disney Company.


Alice wondered along the beach aimlessly. Her sister brought her here to avoid the harsh England winter, but Alice hated it. Sand angels just weren't the same as snow angels, and since Dinah hated water and her sister was afraid of tanning, Alice was usually by herself. She was just about to turn around when she heard a lady call out a greeting.

Ariel had just finished a quick walk on the beach, glad to get some fresh air and exercise. The weather lately had been too cool to stay outside for so long, considering the strong winds that were native to the beach. When she got closer to the castle, she had noticed a young blonde girl, seeming to be all alone.

In a friendly tone, she cupped her hands over her mouth and called, while still walking towards the girl, "Hello there!"

Alice turned to see a red-headed girl further down the beach. She waved at her, and started heading in her direction. _"At least,_ " Alice thought _"it would be someone to talk to."_ Alice hadn't seen anyone with hair as oddly coloured as hers; even the people her in wild dreams had average hair tones. It was such a pretty colour though and Alice's curiousity was instantly peaked.

The redhead noticed the girl turn and look at her, then begin making her way over to her. When Ariel met her, she took notice of the girl's lovely blonde hair, reminding her on Andrina.

"Hello," Ariel said again gently, bending down a bit and placing her hands on her knees over her dress. "Are you lost?" she asked in a concerned tone, brushing some hair back from her shoulder.

Alice shook her head no. "No, I'm not lost. I am staying down the beach with my sister and I couldn't stay in the house anymore. It's so boring! All she does is read books without pictures." Alice sighed, looking out over the ocean. "I don't understand books without pictures. How are you supposed to keep up with them?"

Alice looked back at the young woman, realizing that she didn't know very much about her. "Oh, I'm Alice."

"Well, once you get older, you don't really need the pictures," Ariel explained with a chuckle. "Your mind draws the pictures for you, Miss Alice." She smiled, then straightened herself up again and curtsied innocently. "And I am Ariel."

The redhead looked behind Alice, seeing no one else on the beach. Hm. "You said you were with your sister?" she asked, still scanning the beach.

Alice turned and looked back up the beach. "My sister is afraid of getting tanned so she stays inside all day. I brought my kitten too, but she doesn't like the water or sand so I go for walks by myself. I don't mind though. The beach is lovely, especially at this time. Do you live near here?"

Ariel nodded with a smile, looking behind her shoulder. "Right there," she said cheerfully, looking at her home. "I'm the princess. By marriage. My husband is the prince." She grinned, turning back towards Alice.

Noticing the little girl's fascination with the ocean, the redhead took a few steps towards the water and then slumped down into the sand, her dress spreading away from her body. Patting the sand next to her, Ariel looked at Alice. "I don't think I've seen you around here before. Are you new here?"

Alice smiled and sat down next to Ariel, smoothing her skirts out around her. She knew her sister would be really upset with her for getting sand and water on it, but Alice didn't care. If her sister was really concerned about it, she could've gone with her and made sure she didn't get wet!

"Sort of. My sister and I live in London but we come here for vacation. And that's so exciting that you're a princess! I've never met a princess before. We have a queen in London, and I've gone on walks near her palace, but I've never even seen her. I've always wondered what a princess looks like though," Alice exclaimed.

"Well, now you know!" Ariel replied cheerfully, smiling at Alice's innocence. "London!" she exclaimed. "That's incredible! I've heard such wonderful things about London." The princess sighed, dreamily. "I hope to visit there one day. I _love_ the accents there!" she giggled.

"Accents?" Alice asked "Doesn't everyone else have an accent, and we talk normally?" She giggled, thinking of the way people from other countries talk when they speak English. "You could come back to London with my sister and I! It's much prettier here though. There is no ocean in London and the city is always crowded and dirty. We live just outside the city, in the country, where it's slightly prettier but there is no one else out there so it's really boring."

"No," she chuckled, before placing a hand on her chest, gesturing to herself. " _I_ don't have an accent, although I would love to." She then made a sour face. "Dirty? I never heard London was dirty.. But then again, I guess the less favorable qualities of something usually aren't told, right?" She shrugged.

"So, Miss Alice, what brings you here?" the redhead smiled.

Alice shook her head. "No one talks about London being smelly and dirty because the queen lives so close to there and when people come to visit, they are led down the nicest, cleanest streets in town. My sister takes us to a different shore every winter because we get a lot of snow out in the countryside and she doesn't like snow. She said it ruins her shoes and skirts. I keep trying to tell her that coming to the seashore won't help because the sea shore has a lot of water too, but she stays inside all day."

"Is that so?" Ariel said, thinking how odd that was. She and Eric made sure _the entire_ kingdom was taken care of, not only the places that associated with the queen. It was just in their nature.

Alice's sister seemed like she wasn't any fun. Ariel began to understand why the young girl had wandered off. "Well, that's no fun!" she declared. "Do you ever get lonely, then? Being by yourself all the time, with no one else to play with?"

Alice nodded. "Absolutely! My sister got me a kitten and Dinah does help with the boredom some, but if a cat doesn't want to play with you, it won't. Like right now. Dinah doesn't like the water or sand, so if I want to go on the beach, I have to go without her. I do make up some of my own friends though. Sometimes I daydream and go to new worlds where I am never bored! It usually happens during my history lessons, which upsets my sister, but who can honestly enjoy listening to history?" Alice giggled, hoping that Ariel felt the same way about history. She didn't want to offend her if she really enjoyed it.

Ariel hesitated for a moment. She herself enjoyed history, but that was probably due to her fascination with learning about humans. It was understandable that maybe things of the past weren't as interesting to humans as they were to merpeople.

The former mermaid's face contorted, and she nodded. "Yes, I can see what you mean. History can become boring." She made a fist with her hand, resting her arm on her knee and her head on her fist. "But it's nice that you have such a wonderful imagination!" the redhead replied in awe, sincerely fascinated with the young girl. Surprisingly, she reminded Ariel of herself when she was younger.

Alice giggled. "I certainly have a wild imagination! Sometimes I can't tell when I am actually experiencing something or if it's just a dream. You could be a dream right now and I wouldn't be able to tell!" Alice laughed, then paused, thinking about what she just said. "You aren't a dream, are you? Because that would be terrible."

Ariel laughed, then reached over to touch Alice's hand, confirming to her she was real. "Don't worry, I'm real," she giggled, before turning to look at the ocean. "And this beach is real. The sun is real. Everything is real."

The princess chuckled, then said, "But I do know what you mean about dreams. I have them, too, but the ones that seem the most real aren't usually good dreams." She frowned, remembering some of her night terrors.

Alice smiled, looking around the castle. "My dreams that seem real couldn't actually happen. But they seem so real at the time! Like, tea parties outside and croquet games with pink flamingoes." Alice laughed, remembering it. She finished her last bite.

Ariel eyebrows went up in surprise. "Well, isn't that interesting!" she exclaimed, then sighed. "My dreams aren't as exciting as those. They're usually just flashbacks." She shrugged. "But I guess that's one of the great things about being so young, you know?" She exhaled again melancholily, leaning back on her hands. As she looked out at the crashing waves, she started to miss her years of adolescence, when she was just a young mermaid wishing to be human.

"I'll bet your flashbacks are much more interesting than mine. Being a princess always sounds like so much fun in the stories. Did your castle have a tower? I always thought it would be so cool to have a tower. You could go up there and just spend hours looking out the window at all the scenery!" Alice sighed, imagining the tower and its view.

Ariel exhaled and rolled her eyes a bit. "You could say that," she mumbled, "but they aren't exactly.. pleasant." Ariel shuddered at the memories.

At the mention of a castle, Ariel looked over her shoulder at her own, listening to Alice's question. "Well," she started, tilting her head as she looked at her home. "I.. guess it has a tower? It's separated into sections, and some points are higher than others."

Then, her eyes set on the largest section, which was Ariel and Eric's bedroom. "But my husband and I's room does have a wonderful view of the beach." She sighed contentedly.

Alice looked over at the castle. "I would love to hear and see the ocean every night as I fell asleep. Although I probably wouldn't want to live here. I would never be able to get out of the house once I start tanning. You're lucky that that your husband doesn't seem to care if you tan. It would be awful to live on the beach and not be able to enjoy it!"

"Well, I don't consider it tanning," Ariel giggled, laying back on the sand. The warmth of the sand made her feel very relaxed, and she sighed happily, closing her eyes. "And as for my husband… Considering we met on this very beach, I don't find it surprising that he 'lets' me come here." She smiled, her eyes still resting. "Besides, the ocean is my… Um, it's like my second home."

Alice, curious as to how the sand felt and not really caring anymore how her sister would react when she got back, laid down in the sand next to Ariel. The sun was bright in her face but felt so nice, especially when she thought of the English sun.

"It would be so lovely to have something like this. All I have is the countryside, and a little bit of woods. There isn't much in them besides flowers and small animals, like butterflies. I would miss the daisies here on the beach. They make such beautiful headpieces and chains!" Alice mused to herself.

Ariel raised an eyebrow, turning her head to look at the little girl. "Is that so?" She sighed. "That sounds beautiful, actually. I wish we had daisies on the beach. I think they would make everything a lot prettier, don't you?"

The former mermaid sat up for a moment, looking at the dull, smooth sand as she imagined it populated with daisies. "But I guess you don't have any sand where you live, do you?"

Alice giggled. "I think daisies are the only good thing about England! Besides the daisies, we mostly just have grey skies and rainy days. And no, no sand. Just dirt and grass."

"Oh," Ariel replied with a frown. "That's no fun. Sand is _much_ nicer, don't you think?" The redhead spread her arms through the sand, letting the tiny grains run through her fingers.

"So you don't have any beaches either, right? Or anything interesting like.. Uh, mermaids?"

"We do have beaches, but they're cold and rocky. And no mermaids. My sister says they are nothing but a sailor's dream." Alice shuddered thinking of all the sunken ships just off the coastline that sailors, after having been washed ashore, claimed were sunken by beautiful mermaids singing to them. "I've read about them though, and they sound positively horrible creatures!"

"Hm, is that so.." Ariel said dimly, more as a statement than a question. But when Alice suddenly called mermaids "horrible," Ariel couldn't help feeling angry and offended, despite her not being one anymore. Her hand flew to the seashell necklace around her neck, clutching the small shell protectively, as if its powers to change her from human to mermaid were about to be taken away. "Why would you think they're so terrible? What have they ever done to humans?!" she practically yelled, thinking of her sisters and father down under the sea.

Alice noticed Ariel's tone and winced. "I'm sorry, it's just that I've heard so many stories of mermaid luring sailors to their death. They say that mermaids sit on rocks in the ocean, near the shore, and they sing and the sailors steer the ships toward them, trying to save them, and then crash on the rocks. And then the ships go down and the sailors drown." Alice knew she was rambling but she didn't know why Ariel liked mermaids, based on what she'd heard.

Ariel's eyes widened at this recount, and she was suddenly depressed that so many people seemed to think this was what mermaids did. However, she realized that Alice's story was oddly similar to her own.

"Alice, how about I tell you a, uh, story that I once heard about a little mermaid," she started, careful to keep her tone even and relaxed.

"Is it in a book without pictures? Because I don't like books without pictures," Alice asked warily. Realizing that she might have hurt Ariel's feelings, she quickly added "But I would love to hear it! I do like hearing about worlds different from this one, and I would imagine that a mermaid living under the sea would have a much different world."

"No.. no," Ariel shook her head. "It isn't in a book. It's, um.." she struggled to explain. "It's a story my, uh, Daddy told me," she finally got out.

"Once there was a young mermaid, who didn't exactly.. fit in. She was a regular fish-out-of-water," she rolled her eyes discreetly. "All she wanted was to become a human. She was fascinated with everything about them, and dreamed of becoming one." She sighed at the memory before continuing.

"She came across a ship once, filled with music and dancing. Curiously, she swam over to it and climbed up the side, peeking in to see what the humans were doing. Then she saw the most handsome man she'd ever seen. Even more handsome than a merman.."

"That was a lovely story," Alice sighed when Ariel finished. "It is such a shame that people don't know that nice mermaids exist. I wonder why she didn't like being a mermaid. I think being a mermaid would be so much fun! Playing with dolphins all day long, and of course you would be able to get all the seashells you want! Although I don't suppose I could eat cod anymore…"

"No, no.." Ariel agreed. "Mermaids don't like the idea of eating fish. Fish are friends, not food." She shrugged. "I guess she just felt like she didn't really fit in with the other mermaids," she added quietly. "Like she wasn't meant to be one."

"I've never met a fish, but I suppose they would make good friends. Even if they don't talk, they would make wonderful listeners. And sometimes it is nice just to talk to someone, or something, and know that at least it is listening," Alice paused, shifting some sand through her fingers. "I think everyone winds up in places where they feel they don't belong sometimes. Even if that place seems absolutely perfect to others, if you don't feel right there, it isn't where you were meant to be."

Ariel chuckled. "I have a feeling they do. Something just tells me.." she giggled, thinking of Flounder. "I think some of them could even be _guppies._ That is, they're a bit cowardly."

The former mermaid raised an eyebrow at the little girl's somewhat inspirational comment. She smiled at her. "I think you're right, Alice," she sighed. "That little mermaid ended up exactly where she was supposed to be."

"Well, I was once in a place that I didn't belong, although I thought it was exactly what I wanted," Alice traced figure eights in the sand. "And I'm happy that little mermaid found what she was looking for."

"She did," Ariel whispered, staring at the sand as she ran her slender fingers through the tiny grains. "And she's glad she did, too."

The redhead looked up from the sand and at Alice, then smiled. "So," she said, looking around the beach. "Where's your sister? Should you be getting back to her soon? I wouldn't want for you to get in trouble." She bit her lip and sat up, smoothing out her billowing dress.

Alice looked out over the setting sun and realized she had been out a lot longer than she expected. Looking back over the beach she couldn't see the house anymore.

"Oh, well, she's back at the house, that way," Alice pointed down the beach. "I should be heading back now. I missed tea, and I'll be late for supper."

Ariel nodded and stood up. "I understand." The princess knew that she would want Melody to be as responsible as Alice in this situation. The redhead smiled at the young girl. "Well, it was a pleasure to meet you, Miss Alice," Ariel giggled. "We certainly had a good talk, don't you think so?"

"Oh yes, it was lovely!" Alice agreed, giving Ariel a quick curtsey. "I do hope to see you again before our trip is over!"

Ariel beamed and nodded in agreement. "Definitely! Enjoy your trip, Miss Alice!" She giggled and leaned down to hug the young girl, saying goodbye. As Ariel turned to walk back to the castle, she couldn't help but be impressed with Alice's wild imagination. She smiled to herself, thinking of all the wonderful imaginary adventures that Alice must be able to come up with. In a way, the English girl had reminded Ariel of herself a bit, with a big imagination and many dreams.


End file.
